THE LAKE VILLAGES IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF GLASTONBURY. 261 



was composed of one floor, the maximum thickness of the clay near 

 the central picket being 9 inches. No line of wall-posts or hearths was 

 discovered. The substructure was composed of an artificially-placed 

 layer of dark peat, with no brushwood or timber. 



Mound VII. (in the last Report provisionally called Mound I.). — ■ 

 This dwelling-mound was of large size, with an elevation of 3'45 feet 

 at the centre, the N. and S. diameter being 32 feet. It was situated 

 in the S.W. quarter of the village in Field iv., and was composed of 

 eight floors with thirteen hearths, twelve of which were superimposed. 

 The total thickness of the clay was 6 feet. The upper part of the 

 mound at the centre was incomplete owing to denudation, and the 

 hearths belonging to the upper floors were consequently missing. The 

 ground under and surrounding the mound was thickly covered with 

 piles, a large proportion of the posts being split pieces of oak. The sub- 

 structure was 2 feet in depth, and composed of brushwood and timber, 

 on the surface of which planks of oak were placed at intervals. A 

 portion of the N.E. quarter of this mound remains unexplored, and 

 will be completed next season. 



The objects found in and around this dwelling were probably more 

 numerous than in any dwelling previously explored, and were of an 

 exceedingly interesting character. 



The season's work at Meare Lake Village has been productive of a 

 large number of relics, the quarter of an acre examined throwing a 

 flood of light on the industries and daily pursuits of the inhabitants of 

 this ancient habitation, and revealing more specimens of Late-Celtic art 

 than perhaps the richest quarter of an acre of the neighbouring village 

 at Glastonbury. These remains have afforded evidence that the lake- 

 dwellers of Meare lived under similar physical conditions and civilisa- 

 tion to those of Glastonbury; and although the relics discovered at 

 Meare in 1910 are of the same general type as those found in the other 

 village, several of the objects cannot be matched among the Late-Celtic 

 specimens exhibited in the museum at Glastonbury. 



The Meare Lake Village is not what is sometimes styled an ' archae- 

 ological puzzle,' for its date, or period at any rate, was known from 

 the beginning of the investigations. After a few years' work, however, 

 the date may be even more clearly defined than in the case of the 

 Glastonbury village, which in round numbers may be given as from 

 B.C. 200. Some antiquaries are strongly inclined to narrow these 

 dates, as no development or improvement in the manufactured articles 

 is traceable when comparing objects found on the lowest floors of 

 the dwellings, and in the substructure below, with others from the 

 upper floors, and from just below the alluvial flood-soil which has accu- 

 mulated since the evacuation of the village. At Glastonbury a few 

 fragments of Eoman pottery were found on the surface of the mounds 

 but below the flood-soil; as yet nothing attributable to the Eomans 

 has been found at Meare. 



Numerically the objects of bronze are considerably in excess of those 

 of iron, as was the case at Glastonbury also. Lead from the Mendip Hills 

 is found at Meare in the form of sinkers for fishing-nets, but as yet tin 



